Psychometric evaluation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in Polish mothers.

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to a parent's capacity to reflect on and understand the inner mental states of their child, their own mental states with regard to their child, and how these mental states may influence their behavior and interactions. This capacity has been shown to foster secure attachment in children and their socio-emotional development. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Polish translation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), a brief screening measure of PRF, in a large community sample of Polish mothers of children aged 0-5 years (N = 979). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor structure of the PRFQ, which consists of three subscales: prementalizing modes, certainty about mental states, and interest and curiosity in mental states. However, item loadings suggested that the 15-item version fitted the data better than the original 18-item version. These three PRFQ subscales exhibited satisfactory and moderate six-month test-retest reliability. They also correlated in theoretically expected ways with several criterion measures such as maternal attachment, maternal parenting stress, parental role restriction, depression severity, and borderline symptoms. In conclusion, this study is the first to provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the PRFQ as a measure of parental reflective functioning in Polish mothers.

I should not have had a child: Development and validation of the Parenthood Regret Scale.

Parenthood is one of the most important social roles, but the consequences of becoming a parent are not always as expected. It is estimated that in developed countries, up to 5%-14% of parents regret their decision to have children and if they could turn back time, they would choose childlessness. While such a situation can have serious consequences for the entire family system, our knowledge of the causes and consequences of regretting parenthood is very limited. Beyond the possible taboo, one factor that is certainly responsible for the small number of studies on regretting parenthood is the lack of questionnaires to measure its severity. In the present study, we decided to fill this gap and developed a new questionnaire-the Parenthood Regret Scale. In a series of three studies (total N = 2,994) conducted on English-speaking, French-speaking, and Polish-speaking samples, we analyzed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the new scale. The results confirmed that the Parenthood Regret Scale has a single-factor structure, which has been replicated in the three languages. Furthermore, the analyses confirmed that higher parenthood regret is negatively related to life satisfaction, and positively related to the severity of depressive symptoms and parental burnout. In light of the results obtained, it can be concluded that the Parenthood Regret Scale is a valid and reliable measure that can help advance research on an almost unknown issue of great social importance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental burnout at different stages of parenthood: Links with temperament, Big Five traits, and parental identity.

The study aimed to analyze the links between traits from different levels of personality organization and parental burnout. To answer the research questions, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,471 parents aged 19 to 45 years (mean age 35.30, SD = 5.98). The results showed that the severity of parental burnout was linked to traits ranging from biologically determined temperament traits to basic personality traits to a sense of parental identity. More specifically, we found higher burnout among parents who have difficulty shifting between tasks and coping with strong stimulation, low emotional stability and conscientiousness, and low identification with the parental role. We also found that certain personality traits were more strongly associated with parental burnout among those who had children in early childhood or preschool period (under the age of seven) than those in later stages of parenthood. The study contributes knowledge about the personality correlates of parental burnout and the role of personality at different stages of parenthood.

Parental identity formation in mothers is linked to borderline and depressive symptoms: A person-centered analyses.

The formation of a stable parental identity is an important developmental task which parents face. Difficulties in this process can significantly decrease the quality of life and hinder the fulfillment of the parental role. The present study analyzed whether parental identity status, based on the three identity processes from the Meeus-Crocetti model, is related to the severity of borderline and depressive symptoms. Four hundred and fifty-nine mothers aged 18-40 (M = 32.41, SD = 5.09) participated in the cross-sectional study. The results of the cluster analysis revealed the existence of five different parental identity statuses: Achievement, Foreclosure, Searching moratorium, Diffussion, and Moratorium. Significant differences were also observed between parents with different statuses in terms of borderline and depressive symptoms. The study confirmed predictions that mental health difficulties among parents co-occur with low identification with parenthood.

Parental identity status in emerging and early adulthood, personality, and well-being: A cluster analytic approach.

The present study was the first one in which parental identity statuses were investigated from the point of view of the processual identity model. The aim was the observation of individual differences among parents in respect of their parental identity (identity statuses) and differences between parents with a different identity status. In the study, 709 parents between the ages of 20 and 40 participated (64.8% women). The obtained results support the hypothesis that five different identity statuses in the parental domain could be identified, that is: Achievement, Foreclosure, Searching Moratorium, Moratorium, and Diffusion. Furthermore, hypothesized differences between different statuses regarding personality traits and well-being have also been observed. The present study suggests that parental identity, which is often overlooked by neo-Eriksonian identity researchers, is a fully-fledged identity domain related to parents' personality and well-being and contextual factors associated with family life. The importance of the obtained results for our understanding of parental identity formation is discussed in the article.

How many parents regret having children and how it is linked to their personality and health: Two studies with national samples in Poland.

Surveys conducted over the last few years on representative samples in the US and Germany suggest that the percentage of parents who regret having children is approximately 17-8%. In none of these studies did the researchers attempt a detailed examination of this group of parents from the perspective of their psychological functioning. In the present article, two studies based on large, national samples (N = 1175 and N = 1280), one of which was a representative sample of young Poles, are presented. The results obtained show that the percentage of parents who regret parenthood is higher in Poland than in the US or Germany, and that parents who regret having children are characterized by a higher level of adverse childhood experiences, have poorer psychological and somatic health, are more vulnerable to social evaluation, and experience strong parental identity crisis and parental burnout. Regretting parenthood also turns out to be associated with the parent's financial situation and marital status, and with having children with special needs. The results indicate that regretting becoming a parent is an important social and psychological issue that should become an object of interest for researchers from various disciplines and for social policy authorities.

Is Person-Group Value Congruence Always a Good Thing? Values and Well-Being Among Maladjusted Teens and Their Peers.

In the present study, we analyzed relationships between values, well-being, and person-group value consistency in two samples: teens under court-mandated supervision (n = 51) and teens from the general population (n = 49). Results showed that supervised teens experienced lower satisfaction with life, placed more value in stimulation, hedonism, and power, and less in universalism and benevolence. They also experienced lower satisfaction when they valued stimulation, hedonism, and face, and higher satisfaction when they valued conformity-rules and universalism-tolerance. These results show that valuing the things that the group also values at a high level (here: for hedonism and stimulation) may not always be a positive force, especially when the environment is problematic, whereas going against the values of the maladjusted group (here: for universalism) may be beneficial for well-being. However, when we calculated a direct index of person-group congruence, it correlated positively with satisfaction among supervised teens for the values of achievement, stimulation, security-personal, and universalism-concern, whereas congruence for power-dominance correlated with satisfaction negatively among the supervised teens, suggesting a slight but direct limit to the congruence effect.

Child-oriented and partner-oriented perfectionism explain different aspects of family difficulties.

The aim of the study was to verify the relationship between child-oriented and partner-oriented perfectionism, and their associations with narcissism and with difficulties in the romantic and parental domains. A total of 459 individuals participated, 264 women and 195 men (Mage = 33.88, SD = 4.39). Child-oriented perfectionism and partner-oriented perfectionism were related to each other and positively correlated with narcissism. Partner-oriented perfectionism turned out to be a specific predictor of difficulties in the romantic relations, whereas child-oriented perfectionism was found to be a predictor of difficulties in parental relation. The results suggest that studies on other-oriented perfectionism should take into consideration concrete individuals at whom perfectionistic expectations are directed (e.g. partner and children). This will enable a more precise investigation of the influence of perfectionism on family life and a better understanding of the social consequences of other-oriented perfectionism.

How Good It Would Be to Turn Back Time: Adult Attachment and Perfectionism in Mothers and Their Relationships with the Processes of Parental Identity Formation.

Parental identity formation may be a factor of the utmost importance in helping us to understand the mechanisms of adaptation to parenthood. However, our knowledge regarding the processes involved in the development of parental identity is very limited. In the present study the relationships between three dimensions of parental identity (commitment, in-depth exploration, reconsideration of commitment), and two trait-like characteristics that determine the quality of family life, i.e. romantic adult attachment and perfectionism were analyzed. 206 mothers aged 22 to 40 participated in the study (M = 33.33, SD = 3.68). The results revealed that a high level in anxious attachment, avoidant attachment and maladaptive aspects of perfectionism (other-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism) positively correlate with a low level of parental identity commitment and a high level of reconsideration of parental commitment. Regression analysis revealed that especially attachment-related anxiety and other-oriented perfectionism can be treated as independent, specific predictors of an increased crisis of parental identity.

Perfectionism and Identity Processes in Two Domains: Mediational Roles of Worry, Rumination, Indecisiveness, Shame, and Guilt.

The objective of the study was to assess the relationships between two dimensions of perfectionism, that is, perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, and identity processes in the domains of future plans and education. It was hypothesized that such consequences of perfectionism as worry, rumination, indecisiveness, and guilt and shame proneness would be mediators of the perfectionism-identity relationship. A total of 696 students took part in the study (M age = 26.74, SD = 7.56). It was found that perfectionistic strivings may promote the development of identity by supporting adaptive exploration and identity commitment. This relationship was only partly mediated. On the other hand, perfectionistic concerns were associated with significant difficulties with identity formation. This relationship was largely indirect, and indecisiveness proved to be the main mediator of the perfectionistic concerns-identity relationship. High indecisiveness, which disturbs decision-making processes, seems to explain why maladaptive perfectionists have problems with identity formation. These mediational effect was observed in both analyzed domains.

Adaptation of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) to the measurement of the parental identity domain.

The present studies examined the psychometric properties of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) adapted to the measurement of identity formation in the parental identity domain. As the parental identity domain has only been studied within the neo-Eriksonian approach to a very limited extent, the aim of these studies was to prepare a short, valid and reliable tool for the measurement of parental identity in order to fill this gap. The associations of commitment, in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment in the parental domain with well-being and with other identity constructs were analyzed. The results showed that parental identity formation is associated with mothers' satisfaction with life and trait anxiety and with identity formation in other areas as well. The initial results suggest that the adapted version of the U-MICS is a valid and reliable measure that can be used in future studies on parental identity formation.